Entries from July 2008

July 31, 2008

Not only are we on a toilet paper budget but we’re on a moolah budget as well. However, it’s no secret – I love shopping. Even if I can’t buy the things I’m shopping for.

I found this cute set of retro dishes that are pretty much perfect. Ceramic dishes, Urban Outfitters

I think something like this platform bench with a cushion, from Urban Outfitters as well, would come in handy and look nice under a window in our bedroom or living room. They have various cushions in different colors.

But maybe something like this slat bench would be more versatile.Urban Outfitters

We’re finding the need for a step stool in the kitchen with our very high storage areas. This cutie is from Target.com for only $9!

And for fun I found this Polaroid printer. Everyone that knows me knows I love a good Polaroid picture. I was devastated when they announced that they would stop producing film for the old school Polaroid cameras. I’ve stocked up and continue to see film in stores but know it will dry up soon enough. So when I saw this gadget I thought it might be a good compromise – providing me with instant photos in a digital age. I wonder what the ink quality is like and how often you have to replace cartridges.

I would need this camera to go with it, though.Also from Urban Outfitters, this is actually a digital camera!Rollei Rollei Rollei. The Rolleiflex Mini Digital Camera proudly continues the Rollei Twin Lens Reflex tradition, pushing the famed camera into beautifully tiny territory! First developed in Germany in the 1920’s, the Rollei 6x6cm Twin Lens Reflex Camera has always been a preferred tool for serious photography, especially portraits. And because it’s as pretty as the pictures it takes, the Rollei has became a classic of 20th century camera design. Now, many of the original’s unique features (and all of its charm) can be yours in a retro-miniature package too awesome to believe! A 5 Mega Pixel camera with autofocus technology, the Rollei Mini allows you to shoot from a distance of 4 inches to infinity, saving each image to a Mini SD Card. Still the undisputed choice for portraits, the camera features an up-facing 1.1″ square display for waist level shooting, which encourages your subjects to go on looking and acting naturally instead of posing for the camera. Crank lever ‘film advance”; JPEG image format; 4.9mm F2.8 Lens; 1/15-1/2500s Shutter Speed; Automatic While Balance and Exposure Control; Auto power-off. Imported. Wipe clean.

July 29, 2008

I’ll be gone for a couple days art directing a commercial shoot in Texas for an entertainment superstore.

So I thought I’d give you all an update and head on out.

Our plumbing problems have been temporarily fixed. Our wonderful plumber came out and unclogged the beast for us. He said it should hold us over for months, maybe longer, as long as we don’t flush paper down it. I was thinking “psh, I’m not going to flush my magazines or bills down the toilet – no worries.” Then I realized he was talking about TOILET PAPER. Uhm. Hm. HOW DOES THAT WORK? I won’t go into details but we got the extra thick cushy Charmin and have put ourselves on a toilet paper budget. I think it’s important that you all really know what goes into a remodel that “sounds like so much fun!” – TOILET PAPER BUDGETS.

It also turns out that both Jeremy and I were notorious as kids for clogging up the toilets and our parents have no problem laughing about it.

Needless to say, we’ll be putting in a new sewer line sooner rather than later and I will be stuffing copious amounts of toilet paper down it.

In other news…

I forgot that I never posted a photo of our new entertainment credenza.This isn’t the most flattering photo in the world but you get the idea. It’s working out pretty well so far.

We still have a huge to-do list but things are calming down. Now it’s just a waiting game for our kitchen countertops and backsplash tile. We’re also anxious for our sofa to come in. Hopefully it will be in the next couple weeks. Then I will finally reveal a full living room photo.

July 26, 2008

The cabinetry is done. We painted it all white with a sprayer, we got all the walls painted (Victorian Lace – Sherwin Williams), and we got all the doors and drawers back on/in the cabinets.

It’s far from being done. We need to organize the contents of our upper cabinets and have glass put in the upper doors. We need to patch the tile on the floor where a peninsula was coming out. We need to have countertops put in and tile the backsplash. We need to put in the vent hood and install cabinet lighting (which will involve some of wiring work in the attic).

There is a lot more work ahead of us but the progress we’re making shows.

In other news. We’re having some plumbing problems. When we bought the house we paid for an extra sewer line inspection just to make sure everything was in working order and we wouldn’t run into any unexpected issues. It turns out they only inspected the line that runs water from the kitchen and basement. Not the line that carries all the scary stuff that comes out of our bodies AWAY from us.

After painting the kitchen we were washing off some materials in the bathtub when our neighbor came over and said that there is white milky water coming into her backyard. Awesome. We have no clean out on that side of the house so the water is just seeping up through the ground.

We called our plumber out – he’s the same guy that redid the pipes in our bathroom and we both really like him a lot. After he showed us his new Texas Longhorn tattoo on his hand he dug down to the pipe to install a clean out. When he got down to the pipe he noticed that the pipe is basically constructed out of tar PAPER. It looks like he can give us a temporary fix by cleaning the pipe out but we’re going to have to build a new line. It’s a little ridiculous to try and repair the line or replace it where it is since even though it’s on our property line it’s in our neighbor’s back yard. The other challenge in the way is we have no access under the house on that side. So he’s going to have to create access through the floor of a closet. Then he’s going to create a new sewer line that hooks up from the new pipes he installed in our bathroom going out to the main line.

Phew.

We’re looking forward to having all of these major repairs behind us.The bathroom issues seem far behind us. All of this will be behind us soon enough.

The pains of remodeling a kitchen and doing our dishes in the bathtub is FUN compared to sewer problems.

July 25, 2008

In our kitchen all of our upper cabinets will be clear glass. I think with the help of some cute (or classic) dishes and Jeremy’s OCD tendencies we’ll keep it looking pretty nice.

So here are some cute dishes.morocco dinnerware, CB2I love the pattern and the orange.

It reminds me of this rug from Pottery Barn.That would look nice under the dining room table, perhaps.

Which reminds me of this cute runner.aman placemat, CB2Of course, I would want to avoid being too matchy-matchy.

ibiza wine glasses, CB2These wine glasses are interesting – but I’m not sure if they go with the more “grown-up” theme I’m trying to achieve.

hue dinnerware, CB2This dinnerware is certainly “grown-up” and a little more understated. Or maybe just a little more boring. It would look nice with the porcelain blend tile we’ve decided to go with for the backsplash.

Ever since I laid eyes on these plates a few months ago I’ve been obsessed.Paper Plates by Virginia SinThese are porcelain plates cast from actual shredded paper plates. Wow.

The last kitchen item I would like to discuss is the followingStainless Steel Oval Pot Rack, BB&BWe would love to have a hanging pot rack in our place to show off Jeremy’s fancy Calphalon cookware but we just can’t figure out where to fit something like that in. We almost left space to the left of our range empty to acommodate one but thought cabinets might be better for resale value in such a (relatively) small kitchen.

Of course, this is all window shopping until we can actually pay off the kitchen itself. But a girl (and guy) can dream.

I promise that by Monday we will have a sneak peak of the kitchen progress.

July 22, 2008

This is an off-topic post that is not at all about the house remodel but I thought it was blog worthy.

A little fact you may or may not know is that I used to play roller derby. KatAtomic 3000

I recently retired due to a few nagging injuries that weren’t letting up. Also, the team I was on was going national demanding a lot of time that I just didn’t have with work and family taking priority.

Well – about a year ago my friend and coworker Brian developed a comic starring KatAtomic! Here’s an excerpt:

I like this part where I snap a guy’s neck with my thighs!

Popgun volume 2, featuring Brian’s creation with artist Dave Curd, BASTARD ROAD, is out in stores and Amazon this week:You can buy it here.And here’s the link to the book’s site where you can read the entire story:

http://www.popguncomics.com/

WARNING: BASTARD ROAD features tartly-written sexual innuendo and fairly disturbing graphic cartoon violence. It was created with the Cartoon Network [adult swim] demographic (males 18-24) in mind, so it’s not for everybody. Feel free to be offended or to not read it at all if it’s not your thing.

As far as the house goes – the kitchen is amazing! We just need to hang the cabinet doors back on before I’m willing to share! I promise – we’ll have it done in the next few days.

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